


To Hand

by Rubynye



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: F/M, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-06 02:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim finds Leonard some help with his Intro Nav exam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Masina Al`e is the creation of [Lindmere](http://lindmere.livejournal.com).
> 
> Content Advisory: Het contemplated, slash included, feats of strength and rules lawyering.  
> Acknowledgements: [](http://lomedet.livejournal.com/profile)[**lomedet**](http://lomedet.livejournal.com/) for being awesome, my roommate for requesting McCoy, and [](http://lindmere.livejournal.com/profile)[**lindmere**](http://lindmere.livejournal.com/) for creating Masina Al'e and allowing me to play with her.  
> 

Sometimes Leonard curses the day he ever met James T. Kirk. That was also the day he joined Starfleet, reason enough by itself for cussing, especially when his required Applied Astrophysics 'elective', Introduction to Navigation 101, has kicked his ass the entire term, and the false and untrue blue-eyed reprobate who promised to help him study for the final ran off last night and has yet to reappear this morning. Leonard grabs his padd of notes, shoves his communicator in his pocket, and viciously hopes Jim is hungover somewhere where he can't charm any medical personnel into helping him.

Just as Leonard reaches the door, it slides open. Jim stands on the other side, carrying a pretty female Human cadet. "Here, Bones, catch," he says, hoisting her, and Leonard reaches out on reflex as Jim dumps the girl into his arms and grabs the padd from his overloaded hand.

"Jim, what---?" The girl looks up at Leonard, big dark eyes shining under long black lashes, wavy hair framing a sweet tea-tinted face and round curves settling far too nicely into his hold. "Uh, hello, miss--?"

"Cadet Masina Al`e," she introduces herself, dimpling impishly. "Nice to meet you, Doctor McCoy." Her voice is soft and gentle. "I'm here to help with your Nav exam."

Which is in forty-two minutes; if Leonard leaves _now_ he should be about ten early, but that's hardly any time for tutoring. He tries to put Cadet Ale down while looking up to explain as much, but Jim, grin wide and toothy at this showstopper in a long line of crazy ideas, hands her the padd and presses her to Leonard's chest. She giggles as she squishes resiliently, Jim leans in almost nose-bumpingly close, and Leonard tingles with severely ill-timed distraction. "C'mon, Bones, you remember what Professor Vasan said!"

"That the exam's at 0900 _sharp_, and oh, the shuttle downHill leaves in _six minutes_, Jim?" Leonard tries to step back, but Jim steps with him, keeping Cadet Ale in his arms.

"That you can bring whatever you can carry," Jim says with an obnoxious, blood-heating eyebrow waggle. "I took Intro Nav last year, remember?"

That's why Leonard asked for his help, and this is why asking was a _bad idea_. "Professor Vasan certainly doesn't mean--"

"She never said it can't be a person, just that you have to carry it. I was going to get you that skinny Russian brainiac Chekov, but Masina's even prettier. Isn't she nicely portable? _And_ she's in the Stellar Cartography program."

"I loved Intro Nav," the girl puts in, and Leonard looks down at her just long enough to sear his eyes on her sweet face and shut them tightly. "It was my first perfect grade at the Academy."

Leonard growls, "All right," through gritted teeth, and Cadet Ale laughs with delight as Jim reaches over her to smack his shoulder.

Thirty-seven minutes later, Leonard climbs the steps to his exam room with Cadet Ale clinging to his neck, her booted feet swinging from his elbow. His arms are feeling it, but not horribly -- she's rounded, but she's little -- and every twinge of strain distracts him from the heat pooling low in his belly, her warm weight and soft perfume. Jim took the ground shuttle with them, insisting that carrying Cadet Ale meant she had to sit on Leonard, and she spent the ride flicking through his notes and offering suggestions, sometimes debating them with Jim, while he bit the inside of his cheek and thought about anything at all besides his maddening friend and the pretty plush-bottomed girl on his lap.

Admittedly, he almost laughs at the look on Professor Vasan's face as he steps down into the lecture hall, the way her eyes fly wide open and then crinkle with laughter when Cadet Ale waves. "So this is what you've brought in?" she says as the rest of the class files in, murmuring and hissing.

"It was Cadet Kirk's idea," Leonard offers, voice thin under the pathetic explanation, as he lowers Cadet Ale into the seat beside his. Professor Vasan laughs aloud at that, and Cadet Ale giggles uproariously.

"I'll allow it," Professor Vasan says, and "good to see you again, Masina," as she turns back to her lectern.

Other students, lugging padds and textbooks, snicker behind their hands or glare icily. "I'm sorry Jim dragged you into his insanity," Leonard whispers to Cadet Ale. "You can leave if you want to."

She just pats his arm and dimples at him. "I'm here to help," she says, crossing her sleek legs, and Leonard exhales and forcibly drags his concentration back on task.

When the exam starts Cadet Ale sits quietly until the first time Leonard gets stuck and growls in frustration. She leans in to whisper, "Try Kanipta'uk's Theorem," so close her soft lips brush his ear, and he bites the inside of his cheek as he nods. It works -- at least, the answer looks correct -- and for the rest of the exam, as padds click and students sigh, Cadet Ale whispers suggestions and corrections, but never outright answers, in Leonard's ear.

Somehow, he manages to complete the exam with answers his conscience accepts as his own, if mostly due to the help of his chief distraction. When Professor Vasan collects his test and dismisses him, a smirk at the corner of her mouth, Leonard stands and offers Cadet Ale a hand up. "I think I'm allowed to let you walk out of here," he whispers dryly, and she gives him a bright dimply grin. "Thank you, Cadet Ale."

"You're welcome, Doctor McCoy." She squeezes his fingers. "My pleasure." She bounces up the lecture hall steps, her round bottom shimmying toothsomely under her uniform skirt, and when Leonard bites the inside of his cheek this time he draws blood.

Three students from his class share his partition on the shuttle back. As the girl fixes a grey laserlike glare on him and the snickering guys nudge each other, the burn spills from Leonard's cheeks down his neck, spreading over shoulders and chest beneath his uniform. Wishing he'd gone by the clinic instead, just to see if anyone needs help, he folds his arms, tongues the bruise inside his cheek, and tries not to remember the warm full sleekness of Cadet Ale in his arms, the soft brush of her mouth over his ear.

At least not until he stalks into his dorm room and finds Jim, wearing only boots and jockeys, sprawled across his bed in a warm slant of sunlight. "_You_," Leonard snarls. "Get your boots off my bed!"

Jim grins as he kicks them off, tucking his hands behind his head, lounging all-but-naked like he owns Leonard's bed. "Aced it, huh? You're welcome."

"I can't believe you put that poor girl up to that!" Steaming hot all over, Leonard rips off his jacket. "Now half the class hates me!" He yanks off his shirt one-handed, flailing the other emphatically.

Jim just stretches indolently, unrepentant and self-satisfied. "Professor Vasan laughed her head off, I bet, and Masina had a great time showing off." His smirk-narrowed eyes gleam. "Isn't she cute? God, that ass of hers--"

Flushing even hotter, Leonard growls and lunges, still in his boots, and shuts Jim up the only effective way, and Jim laughs into the kiss right up until he moans.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was the prompt:  
> ["Today we had exams, and the Professor had earlier said that if you can carry it in, you can use it to help you. One kid actually carried in a post-grad student. The Professor held fast to his word. MLIA"](http://community.livejournal.com/st_xi_kink_meme/330.html?thread=908106#t908106)
> 
> I want to see this. High school AU, in Starfleet Academy, I don't care.
> 
> MAKE IT HAPPEN.
> 
> It had a half dozen fills, but the idea got under my skin, so I couldn't resist adding one more.


End file.
